The Lord has Better Ideas for Us!!

Dear Loved Ones!
What fun it is to read what everyone is doing/thinking. I loved to read Kayes' 'streams of consciousness'! Can't wait to read her book about Beaver. Lucky she has finished it or she couldn't leave for her mission yet!
Don't you all agree that the Lord has better ideas for us than we could ever think up? Maybe Julie and Elaine and Silvia don't think the ideas are so great, but the rest of us do-- for them!!
Bruce and Elaine in San Diego
Kaye in Frankfurt
Carol and Raye in Israel, Egypt
Janet and Wayne in South Jordan
Ralph and I in the Church Office Building

Elaine has us doing stuff we never dreamed we would be doing! We are trying to learn all about the EFY program so we can go to Frankfurt the end of the month and teach 60+ people from 8 different countries. They expect to have 3400 young people involved in the program this summer! Ralph is trying to resurrect his German and I am trying to learn more French than conjugating verbs from high school daze!!
We will blaze the trail for Kaye. I wish we could stay and welcome her but 3 days after we get home we will fly to Auckland, New Zealand to train people from Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland and Tahiti. Elder Callister, our contact person in the area presidency, said, "You can't come all this way and not visit Sydney and the islands." So we are taking the long way home by way of Tahiti. Shelly, our daughter, served a mission in Auckland. She wants to be our escort, but she has to drive boys to soccer, and piano lessons and mutual instead!
Speaking of good books: Gerald Lund's book, "Hearing the Voice of the Lord" is The Best book on Personal Revelation. The focus for EFY for the leaders this year is, "Creating a climate for Revelation". Every page is so specific, detailed and AHA!!Experiences.
A dear friend from college days (Kaye, you remember Judy Cochran Starley-- we talked about this and I gave Matt your greetings. He said he and Gretchen were in Kindergarten on up through school together!) asked if her son could stay with us while he studies for the bar exam. Wouldn't you know, this boy was a counselor and coordinator for EFY for 5 years so he is helping us understand the 'inner workings' of EFY. The Lord knew we needed extra tutoring. Matt also served a mission in Sydney, so he is helping us get around the city and see what we should see.

I occured to me when I give instructions to the Lord, I am limiting His willingness to bless me-- more than I have any idea to ask for! Would Kaye have prayed that she could go to Germany and teach young people the Gospel? (Maybe she did!) but I think when He knows we are available for whatever, and we trust Him, His ideas for us are The Best ideas! Just a little thing like letting a boy come and live at your house for 6 weeks has turned out to be a very personal, helpful blessing!
Another thought: As you all know- Sharon has no 'landing gear'! I fly up in cyber space somewhere without knowing how to land but Ralph has the 'landing gear'. We are having the MOST FUN working together! He has the brains and thinks through every detail after I have flown around a while. Together, we make a good team. We will get important emails that we need to respond to and I will put the 'nice to hear from you, thank you for your counsel etc. etc. and Ralph will pinpoint exactly what needs to be said, and I will 'say' it. I think it is called symbiosis-- or Marriage!!

Kaye could see that we would be scattered all over the world and this blog will keep us connected. Thank you Kaye.

Love to all of you dear, precious friends who are making our world so good! The world itself may be going down the tube, but the Kingdom of God is rolling forth to cover the World! Isn't it fabulous to be on This Team Together?!!

sharon